As yet another winter storm moves in to blast New England, piling snow atop the snow that already sits on the ground, Red Sox spring training officially, thankfully, begins Saturday when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to work out in Fort Myers, Fla.

Some players have already been working out at Fenway South for days, getting ready for the season ahead.

Like every year, with arrival of the first workouts of February come questions. The biggest surrounding this year's Red Sox is simple, straightforward: After winning their third World Series in 10 seasons, will the Red Sox become the first team to repeat as champions since the Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000?

But that's the big picture and many other questions will have to be answered before next October. So heading into spring training, what follows are five key ones for the Red Sox' season ahead.

1. Who will start in center field?

Jacoby Ellsbury is gone, making a run for the money to New York. The battle figures to be between Jackie Bradley Jr. and Grady Sizemore. But Bradley, after an exceptional spring training last year, showed he wasn't ready for The Show when he hit just .189 in 37 games. The position is his for the taking, but he hasn't proven he can handle it, at least not yet.

Then there's Sizemore, one of the best players in baseball from 2005-08, but coming off injuries that limited him from 2009-11 and kept him completely out of the game the last two years. If he's even close to the player he once was, he could be the steal of the offseason. But if he's just a shadow of his former self, he'll just be an experiment that failed.

A third option, should neither Bradley nor Sizemore pan out, is Shane Victorino. It would mean moving the 33-year-old from right field, and that Daniel Nava would become a full-time starter.

2. Is Xander Bogaerts ready?

Stephen Drew apparently isn't walking through that door. And neither is anyone else with starting experience at shortstop. Which means Bogaerts, a rookie who was impressive down the stretch and in the postseason last year, is the starter.

He showed uncommon poise for a 21-year-old, maturity beyond his years. And he showed the skill that's had scouts wiping drool from their chins ever since he signed out of Aruba five years ago. But it was in a very limited number of games, and baseball history is littered with highly touted prospects who showed something in a small sample, but faded into obscurity.

The season will tell whether Bogaerts is the next Sam Horn, Brian Rose, or Lars Anderson, or more closely resembles Derek Jeter, who Wednesday announced this will be his last season but back in 1996 was in the same position as Bogaerts, a rookie being given the responsibility of starting at shortstop on a team with championship dreams.

Page 2 of 3 - 3. Can David Ortiz stave off old age for another year?

It wasn't too long ago Ortiz looked done, early in both the 2009 and 2010 seasons, but since then it was revealed he had a wrist injury that messed with the mechanics of his swing and he's reclaimed his stature among baseball's best power hitters. Never was his skill more potent than during the 2013 World Series against the Cardinals.

But it can't last forever. Time catches up with everyone. And who knows, this might be the year.

If it's not, the Red Sox have the kind of bat most teams can only envy anchoring their lineup, but if this is the year old age affects Big Papi, the team will be dramatically weakened with no other reliable power hitter to pick up the slack.

4. What will Lackey and Buchholz give?

John Lackey was more than merely a pleasant surprise last year; he was a shock. After two miserable seasons and then a missed one following Tommy John elbow surgery, he was at times the best pitcher the Red Sox had, and it was Lackey who pitched 62/3 innings in the team's championship-clinching win over the Cardinals.

If he's just as good, posting an earned run average somewhere around 3.50, the Red Sox could have a superb top three in the rotation, along with Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz.

And yet Buchholz is no sure thing. Last spring he was the best pitcher in baseball. But last summer he was a phantom, out three months with a muscle strain. When he came back, he was diminished and then his velocity evaporated as the postseason played on.

He's never pitched 200 innings – only twice topping 150 – and never made 30 starts. When Buchholz inevitably gets hurt will be crucial – if it's late it could damage the Red Sox' postseason plans.

5. Can Koji do it again?

Koji Uehara was manager John Farrell's fourth choice to close, but he was perhaps the difference-maker down the stretch – a lights-out pitcher who didn't wilt when the pressure mounted and did a pretty good one-season impression of Mariano Rivera. But part of what made the Yankees nearly unbeatable in postseason in the late 1990s was that Rivera did it every year.

Uehara went 27 straight appearances without allowing a run during the summer. In the postseason, he permitted just one to score. If he's that good again – if he's close to that good again – the Red Sox have something special. If he's not, it brings them back just a little bit more, and without a dominant team little bits are what make the difference between champions and contenders.

One more question, a bonus, so to speak: Can the Red Sox recapture the intangibles – most importantly the laser focus – that led to so many improbable wins last year?

Page 3 of 3 - That, other than the big one about repeating, is perhaps the biggest of them all. Because without the every-night intensity there would be no conversation about going back-to-back. There wouldn't have been a first one.

Eric Avidon may be reached at eavidon@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericavidon.